• December 07, 1998
• Vol. 50
• No. 21

Kiss Me Kate

By Dan Jewel

Titanic Star Kate Winslet Sails to the Altar to Wed Her Leading Man of the Past Year, Film Assistant Director Jim Threapleton

Last December, only two weeks before the release of Titanic, Kate Winslet got the news that her friend and onetime beau, ¦Hi actor Stephen Tredre, had died of cancer. On the Morocco set of the drama Hideous Kinky, the actress turned for comfort to third assistant director Jim Threapleton, who, says line producer Paul Sarony, "stepped forward and stayed by her side."

On Nov. 22 he pledged to do just that—till death do them part. The assistant director, 25, married the actress, 23, at the Anglican All Saints Church in Reading, England, near her family's home. After reciting traditional vows and exchanging rings, "Kate shed a tear," said best man and groom's brother Robin Threapleton. "She was as happy and emotional as any bride," says Father Henry Everett, who co-officiated the ceremony. Winslet's mother, Sally, who attended with Roger, her husband of 30 years, their son, Joss, and daughters Anna and Beth, says her new son-in-law "makes Kate so happy. It is definitely a relationship for life."

The couple looked glamorous enough—she wore a beaded Alexander McQueen gown; he wore a McQueen pinstripe suit—but the wedding was otherwise low-key. They had kept the day a secret, and photographers scrambled to the church after the ceremony was under way. Later, some 160 guests danced to Irish tunes and dined on sausages and mashed potatoes at the Crooked Billet pub. The party, says pub landlord Paul Clerehugh, "was as far removed from Hollywood as you could get."

And in keeping with Winslet's down-to-earth style. While Leonardo DiCaprio (who did not attend) has spent much of the last year jet-setting between Manhattan and Hollywood, Winslet has been hard at work in the Third World—following Kinky with Holy Smoke, a romance shot partly in India. Threapleton, who is from a small town in northern England and moved into Winslet's London flat in March, shares her fondness for trout fishing. Before leaving for her honeymoon, reportedly in Britain, Winslet told the Daily Mail she felt "like a princess" at her wedding. "Jim," she said, "has to be my prince. I knew I'd be all right when I felt him holding me. And when the service was over, he kissed me, and he hasn't stopped."

Dan Jewel
Joanna Blonska in Reading and Simon Perry in London

• Contributors:
• Joanna Blonska,
• Simon Perry.